Rigid surface covering material such as floor or wall tile, wood or simulated wood paneling, etc. has in the past generally been adhered to the wall, floor or other surface being covered by spreading adhesive on the covering material or the surface to be covered during the installation process. More recently it has been suggested that a suitable adhesive could be precoated on the tile or other covering material during manufacture thereof. Such a tile product and method for making same is, for instance, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,607,590. Use of such precoated materials has many obvious advantages over application of the adhesive during installation. Unfortunately, while rolls of tape and other light weight, flexible materials have been successfully made with precoated adhesive and stored and used without the necessity for separate layers of release material, the rigidity and weight of surface covering materials such as floor or wall tiles, paneling etc. has necessitated the use of controlled release backing layers such as silicone release paper to prevent pieces of such material from sticking to each other when such materials are stored with precoated adhesive. This is understandable when it is considered that under normal conditions of storage such rigid materials are stacked in such a manner that pressures between about 30 and about 500 lbs. per square foot are exerted on the bottom layers of material for long periods of time. The use of controlled release backing layers requires additional effort and expense, both in applying the additional release layers to the covering material and in removing it during the installation process.